


I See You

by PaintedPetrichor



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eye Trauma, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Injury Recovery, Psychological Trauma, Whiterose
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-18 17:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16521269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintedPetrichor/pseuds/PaintedPetrichor
Summary: Maybe if we shared our pain, it would hurt us a little bit less.





	I See You

The room is dark, and you can’t move.

Your arms are bound over your head, and your feet are held down as well. You tug at the restraints, but to no avail: you only get more tired. You’re so tired.

“Trapped, are you, little rose?” someone above you sneers. You recoil at the voice, and try to scoot away from its source. You can’t recall who it belongs to, only that their intentions cannot be good.

In the darkness, you can just make out the glint in their eyes, trained on your own with unsettling intensity. Cold fingers prod at your face, tugging your skin here and there. They settle around your right eye, pinching your eyelids and pulling them apart. You let out a whine, and hate how pathetic you sound.

The person poking at you laughs, and you wonder how they were able to take laughter, one of your greatest joys, and twist it beyond recognition.

“It’s just perfect, isn’t it?” They say, forcing your eye open wider. “Eye for an eye.”

 

* * *

 

_“Don’t touch me!”_

Seeing her like this, under the stark lights of the medical center, you somehow feel even worse. The smears of blood across her face and clothes that you had felt earlier are illuminated clearly, and so is the raw skin around her wrists. The extent of the damage is appropriately sickening, and it’s clear that she needs help.

But seeing her curled up on a table, hiding her face and screaming, you start to doubt your last few choices.

You watch as two technicians take her wrists and attempt to pry them away. Ruby fights against them, but is too weak to keep them from tying her arms down to the bedrail. She does get a good kick in, though, knocking the wind out of some poor trauma nurse with a well-placed boot.

You give a brief, half-smile at that. _Nice one._

“We’ll remove the restraints as soon as we’re done,” one technician assures you, while sticking an IV into your partner’s extended arm. “I’m giving her a pain reliever and a mild sedative, which should help her relax while we get her wounds cleaned up.”

You nod. “Alright.”

The other nurse returns with a supply cart and begins to examine the wound on Ruby’s face. The damage centers around her right eye, and when the nurse pries the socket open with a metal clamp, you can see just how bad it is. Ruby flinches at the contact, still trying, desperately, to hide away in the pillow under her head.

 _“Nooo, no!_ ” your partner whimpers. _“Please stop.”_

“Um, excuse me,” you say, squeezing past the nurse. You cup your partner’s head in your hands, holding her still but gently stroking her hair. She tries to look at you, but the lights above her are bright and there’s still blood in her eye.

It is just _eye,_ you’ve realized; the socket the nurse cleans out is empty, save for some bloody tissue. You breathe in sharply, a hand going instinctively to cover your own eye. You had considered this possibility, the idea seeming plausible with how much blood had streamed from the wound by the time you had found her, but having these suspicions confirmed is still a startling revelation.

This sort of pain is familiar to you, but it can’t compare to what your partner must’ve felt.

_“Weiss…”_

Hearing your name brings your attention back to your partner, who’s started to relax somewhat, thanks to the drugs in her system. She’s still trying to look you.

“Yes, Ruby, I’m here.”

“ _Weiss_ ,” Ruby whines, her voice quiet. “ _Help me._ Please, just.. just make it _stop_.”

You brush her bangs back with your thumb. “It’s okay, Ruby; you’re safe now, it’s fine.”

“Make ‘em stop, Weiss,” she says, almost whimpering at this point. “Let me go.”

You bite your lip.

_She thinks she’s still there._

The blood on her face is starting to bother you, so you find the nearest sink and get a damp towel to clean her up with. You start with Ruby’s forehead, gently dabbing away the dried blood. When you reach down to wipe the excess on her cheek the nurse gives you a stern look, so you stick to trying to clean your partner’s hair instead.

They probably would have kicked you out by now, you figure, if you weren’t a Schnee. Partners are usually allowed to accompany injured huntsmen and huntresses, but you’ve probably crossed some lines at this point. Hard to kick someone out of a hospital when they’re the daughter of one of the facility’s biggest benefactors, though.

Eventually the other technician interrupts you, asking if you have any of your partner’s medical history.

“Oh, ah, yes,” you answer, pulling out your scroll. “I have Team ID on my scroll, it should be up to date for her.”

“Excellent,” they reply, pulling out a tablet to receive the information from yours. They look over Ruby’s profile and make a few notes. “We’re about done here with cleaning and stitching the wound; it looks like it’s been awhile since her last tetanus vaccine, so we’re going to go ahead and give her a booster just to be safe, and we’d like to take her for a CT scan to make sure there isn’t any internal damage or brain injuries we aren’t seeing.”

You nod along with them, and when they hand you the tablet you realize that you’re being asked to give consent for all of this. You scan the document and sign your name, and then they direct you to a lobby you’re to wait in until they’re finished with your partner.

Ruby cries out for you again when they start to wheel her out to the hallway.

“It’s okay,” you assure her, giving her hand a quick squeeze. “Be good, and I’ll be right back, okay?”

_“Weiss…”_

“I will be right back!” you repeat, your voice firm, your heart aching.

You find yourself kissing her forehead right before she’s pulled out of reach.

“I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos & comments always appreciated (no matter how long!) <3
> 
> I think there will be one, maybe two more parts to this!


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